CC-Crystal’s Robert Failing (24) takes a handoff and runs behind his blockers during a game this season. The Eagles will face Evart in the first round of the MHSAA playoffs this week.

CARSON CITY — On Sunday players and coaches of Carson City-Crystal’s football team were gathered around the television at the middle school to see who they would play in the playoffs.

A cheer went up when they saw their name on the screen.

“We’re very pleased and honored to be a part of the selection show,” coach Jason Gray said. “There are 340 schools sitting at home right now wishing they were in our shoes. It’s a big honor for our program to say we will be playing a 10th game.”

The Eagles will face Evart in the Division 7 district tournament in Evart for their first game. The date and time will be set sometime today.

Should CC-Crystal win, the Eagles will face the winner of Grand Rapids NorthPointe Christian and Lake City. If it’s NorthPointe Christian, CC-Crystal would host the game.

“I know a little bit about Evart. I talked to their coach in the past because they played Montabella last year so I communicated with them about some film,” Gray said. “He’s a great guy and they have a great program.”

The Wildcats, like the Eagles, were 7-2 this season. They had a 51.444 playoff average, just slightly better than CC-Crystal’s 50.222.

“There’s going to be a lot of running and it’s going to be won on the line of scrimmage,” Gray said about the matchup. “We’re pretty confident we’re fairly strong on the line of scrimmage.”

CC-Crystal runs the wing-T system of offense. So does Evart.

“We’ve seen that before this year,” Gray said. “Our kids just have to be disciplined in their assignments and play physical. Evart has a couple of running backs that run really hard so we have to gang-tackle and get off blocks and we’ll be OK there.

“Offensively we feel like we can move the ball against most teams.”

Going on the road was something the Eagles were expecting, but Gray said the game will be treated like any other road game.

“We’re going to approach our practices as though it’s just another regular-season game,” he said. “We’re going to go to Evart, try to do the best we can and take care of business. It doesn’t matter who we’re playing. We’re going to prepare the best we can, play as well as we can, and whatever is the outcome is the outcome.”

When Carson City-Crystal hosts Vestaburg on September 14, the Eagles and Wolverines will be wearing special uniforms. The teams will be wearing uniforms that will raise funds for veterans of Montcalm County. This is the first year of the “Salute Our Soldiers” game for CC-Crystal, according to event co-organizer and varsity football coach Jason Gray.

Carson City-Crystal’s football team hasn’t won a conference title in any conference since winning the Montcalm County Championship in 1962. The Eagles could rectify that if they can beat Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart Friday in Mount Pleasant. If they beat the Irish they would clinch no worse than a share of the Mid-State Activites Conference South Division title. They could claim it outright with a win against Ashley the following week.

Friday’s game between Montabella and Carson City-Crystal will be the Eagles’ homecoming game, but it will be more than that for the two teams. The Eagles will be looking to go 5-1 for the first time since 2004 with one game needed after that to make the playoffs for the first time since 1999. They also are looking to keep pace with Mount Pleasant Sacred Heart for the Mid-State Activities Conference South Division.